Note Taking Guide — Style (How?/Tools) In this course, you will learn how to describe thematic messages of fictional texts by describing the behavior of the tools that create this meaning. To do so well, you need to review some terms.
Tone:
Diction + Imagery = Tone
DIDLS: Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, and Sentence Structure
Irony/Satire: Pay constant attention for this
Connotation/Denotation: denotation is literal meaning, connotation is feelings/words associated with a word
The danger of judgemental terms (hard, complicated, amazing, genius):
Notes from connotative scale and “Waiting” rewrite lesson: Word choice is often the best clue for figuring out tone; use those AP language skills!
Selection of Detail:
Other literary terms this encompasses:
What it means to “name a category” and why this is important:
Epithets: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned
Verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real
Notes from Dombey and Son lesson:
Imagery: Common Broad “Category” Names:
Auditory: Sound
Visual: Sight
Gustatory: Taste
Tactile: Feel
Olfactory: Smell
Kinetic: Motion
Organic: Alive
Dark and light: The perpetual, simplified battle of humanity
Juxtaposed: This vs that; often have some ironic things in common. Look for irony and juxtaposition to work in cahoots!
Notes from Dombey and Son lesson:
Figurative Language:
Metaphor: You know; this is easy
Simile: A simile is like 2 plus 2, really obvious to see
Hyperbole: The weather was so hot that literally everything was on fire
Understatement: “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”
Personification: The dish ran away with the spoon
Synecdoche: Take her hand in marriage (part represents hole)
Metonymy: Bow or Tie for male and female (symbol)
Paradox: Contradiction that is impossible: this statement is false
Apostrophe: Curse that lego I stepped on! (writer directly addresses someone dead or absent or object unable to respond)
Possible “category” tie-ins: Similes and metaphors often directly depend on categories
Notes from “One Art” Lesson:
Point of View/Narrative Control:
First Person: Life of Pi (can you trust him?)
Second Person: Directly addresses reader (breaks forth wall, You)
Third Person Limited: Narrator only knows thoughts of one person (The Road)
Third Person Omniscient: Narrator knows all!
Stream of Consciousness: Mirrors narrator's thoughts. Virginia Woolf
Narrator Reliability: Always be careful if not third person omniscient
Notes from Point of View Lesson:
Organization (Including Use of Time)
Narrative structure: the content of a story and the form used to tell the story
Flashback: Forrest Gump
Framed story: Life of Pi (it’s a journal)
Formal: Exposition → Complicated Incident → Climax → you know
Informal: Wacky order of things; some more experimental stories; memento
Sonnet forms: Fourteen lines; stick to a particular rhyme scheme; iambic pentameter
Villanelle: a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain
Ballad: a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas, passed down orally through folk culture
Couplet: Set of two lines
Tercet: Set of three lines
Quatrain: Set of four lines
Notes from Native Guard Lesson:
Literary Terms Analyzing Contrast
Verbal Irony: Sarcasm
Situational Irony: Events are opposite of what should have happened
Dramatic Irony: Reader knows something character does not
Oxymoron: Jumbo shrimp
Paradox: This statement is false
Juxtaposition: Two opposing things directly compared AND contrasted
Avoid the use of “flowing” and never use “diction” without a descriptor. Okay :)
Notes from “For Julia, In the Deep Water” Lesson:
Sound Devices:
Alliteration: Repeated sounds at beginning of words
Consonance: The recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity
Assonance: Repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near each other (Ex: Go slow over the road)
Onomatopoeia: Bloop, splat, spank (think old batman)
Notes from “For Julia, In the Deep Water” Lesson and Robert Frost’s “Mowing”:
Rhyme:
Formal: Follows traditional patterns of Rhyme scheme
Informal: Doesn’t follow traditional patterns of Rhyme scheme
Traditional: villanelle, sonnet, sestina, haiku, etc.
Unconventional:
absence of: Rejection of tradition, uncertainty?
Is it free verse?
Notes from “One Art” Lesson:
Meter or Prosody: Meter is stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a poem. Prosody is the study of meter among rhythm and intonation
Iambic pentameter: a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable
Two households, both alike in dignity
Metric feet: the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line
iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee, and pyrrhic
Notes from Hamlet soliloquy Lesson:
Allusion
Historical: References a well-known historical event/person
Literary: References a well-known piece of literature
Biblical: References the Bible or Christianity (The Road 1:17)
Shakespearean: Reference to shakespeare
Pop: Allusion to popular culture
Mythological: Allusion to Greek/Roman mythology
Notes from Dombey and Son:
Also, within the Greek tragic tradition be aware of ideas such as:
dramatic unity: the three unities of time, place, and action observed in classical drama as specified by Aristotle in his Poetics
Hubris: Pride, the downfall of most heros
Catharsis: Purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—through art
Notes from Dombey and Son Lesson:
Repetition
Words: Repeated words
Images: Repeated image (light, dark, etc.)
Structural: Repetition of sentence structure
Grammatical: Repetition of a particular grammatical style (eg. sentences with a colon)
Rhetorical (i.e. anaphora, etc.): repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses
Notes from “One Art” Lesson:
Sentence Types
Loose: main idea is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases
I went to the movies yesterday, bought candy, and shopped at the mall.
Periodic: has the main clause or predicate at the end
In spite of heavy snow and cold temperatures, the game continued.
Parallel: Repetition of a particular grammatical form throughout sentence
Chiasmus: a sentence or phrase is followed by a sentence or phrase that reverses the structure and order of the first one
“Do I love you because you're beautiful? Or are you beautiful because I love you?” - Oscar Hammerstein
Inverted word order: Sound like yoda, inverted sentences do.
Notes from “Waiting” Lesson:
Punctuation:
Period (also called “full stop” or “caesura”): These end sentences, in case you didn’t know
exclamation point/question mark (“exclamatory caesura” or “interrogative caesura”): Pay attention to these!
Comma: You know what this is
Colon: Introduce something important is coming: a new idea, a list, a completely new sentence, or just one super important word: colon
hyphen vs. em dash: Em dash is longer and more versitile (can replace a comma too add emphasis, for example) while hyphens are short and have a rigid use (only to seperate compound words, numbers, etc.)
Notes from “Waiting” Lesson:
Characterization
Direct: Author directly describes their character (she an indifferent attitude…)
Indirect: Characterization done through the character’s actions, speech, or appearance
Flat: Uncomplicated characters that do not change; exist to characterize story itself or another character
Round: Complicated and develop/change throughout the story; often major characters
Static: Does not undergo important change during story
Stock: Type of cliche flat character that appears time and time again in literature (eg. the absent minded professor)
Developing: Term used to describe how authors build their characters: through action, speech, description, etc.
Epiphany: moment in the story where a character achieves realization, awareness or a feeling of knowledge, a “turning point”
In this course, you will learn how to describe thematic messages of fictional texts by describing the behavior of the tools that create this meaning. To do so well, you need to review some terms.
Tone:
Selection of Detail:
Imagery:
Common Broad “Category” Names:
Figurative Language:
Point of View/Narrative Control:
Organization (Including Use of Time)
Literary Terms Analyzing Contrast
Sound (or Musicality) Descriptors:
Sound Devices:
Rhyme:
Is it free verse?
Allusion
Also, within the Greek tragic tradition be aware of ideas such as:
Repetition
Sentence Types
Punctuation:
Characterization